How do I write a Windows batch script to copy the newest file from a directory

Question

I need to copy the newest file in a directory to a new location  So far I ve found resources on the forfiles command  a date-related question here  and another related question  I m just having a bit of trouble putting the pieces together  How do I copy the newest file in that directory to a new place

User · Answer

I know you asked for Windows but thought I'd add this anyway,in Unix/Linux you could do:

cp `ls -t1 | head -1` /somedir/

Which will list all files in the current directory sorted by modification time and then cp the most recent to /somedir/

User · Answer

To allow this to work with filenames using spaces  a modified version of the accepted answer is needed   FOR  F  delims     I IN   DIR    B  O -D   DO COPY    I   lt  lt NewDir gt  gt   amp  GOTO  END  END

User · Answer

This will open a second cmd exe window   If you want it to go away  replace the  K with  C   Obviously  replace new file loc with whatever your new file location will be    echo off for  F   i in   dir  B  O -D   txt   do       call  open    i      exit  B 0    open     start  window title   cmd  K copy   1 new file loc  exit  B 0

User · Answer

Windows shell  one liner   FOR  F   I IN   DIR      B  O -D   DO COPY   I  lt  lt NewDir gt  gt   amp  EXIT

User · Answer

Chris Noe     Note that the space in front of the  amp  becomes part of the previous command    That has bitten me with SET  which happily puts trailing blanks into the value    To get around the trailing-space being added to an environment variable  wrap the set command in parens   E g  FOR  F   I IN   DIR        B  O D   DO  SET NewestFile   I

User · Answer

To allow this to work with filenames using spaces  a modified version of the accepted answer is needed   FOR  F  delims     I IN   DIR    B  O -D   DO COPY    I   lt  lt NewDir gt  gt   amp  GOTO  END  END

User · Answer

Windows shell  one liner   FOR  F   I IN   DIR      B  O -D   DO COPY   I  lt  lt NewDir gt  gt   amp  EXIT

User · Answer

This will open a second cmd exe window   If you want it to go away  replace the  K with  C   Obviously  replace new file loc with whatever your new file location will be    echo off for  F   i in   dir  B  O -D   txt   do       call  open    i      exit  B 0    open     start  window title   cmd  K copy   1 new file loc  exit  B 0

User · Answer

Windows shell  one liner   FOR  F   I IN   DIR      B  O -D   DO COPY   I  lt  lt NewDir gt  gt   amp  EXIT

User · Answer

I know you asked for Windows but thought I'd add this anyway,in Unix/Linux you could do:

cp `ls -t1 | head -1` /somedir/

Which will list all files in the current directory sorted by modification time and then cp the most recent to /somedir/

User · Answer

Bash    find -type f -printf   T   p  n           sort           tail -n 1           sed -r  s   S  s   s  s               xargs -iSTR cp STR newestfile   where  newestfile  will become the newestfile   alternatively  you could do newdir STR or just newdir   Breakdown     list all files in  time   file  format   sort them by time  get the last one cut off the time  and whitespace from the start end copy resulting value    Important   After running this once  the newest file will be whatever you just copied  p   assuming they re both in the same search scope that is    So you may have to adjust which filenumber you copy if you want this to work more than once

User · Answer

The accepted answer gives an example of using the newest file in a command and then exiting  If you need to do this in a bat file with other complex operations you can use the following to store the file name of the newest file in a variable   FOR  F  delims      I IN   DIR        B  O D   DO SET NewestFile   I   Now you can reference  NewestFile  throughout the rest of your bat file    For example here is what we use to get the latest version of a database  bak file from a directory  copy it to a server  and then restore the db    Variables SET DatabaseBackupPath   virtualserver1 Database Backups  echo  echo Restore WebServer Database FOR  F  delims      I IN   DIR   DatabaseBackupPath  WebServer   bak   B  O D   DO SET NewestFile   I copy   DatabaseBackupPath  WebServer  NewestFile    D     sqlcmd -U  lt username gt  -P  lt password gt  -d master -Q    RESTORE DATABASE  ExampleDatabaseName    FROM  DISK   N D   NewestFile     WITH  FILE   1     MOVE N Example CS  TO N C  Program Files Microsoft SQL Server MSSQL 1 MSSQL Example mdf      MOVE N Example CS log  TO N C  Program Files Microsoft SQL Server MSSQL 1 MSSQL Example 1 LDF      NOUNLOAD   STATS   10

User · Answer

Chris Noe     Note that the space in front of the  amp  becomes part of the previous command    That has bitten me with SET  which happily puts trailing blanks into the value    To get around the trailing-space being added to an environment variable  wrap the set command in parens   E g  FOR  F   I IN   DIR        B  O D   DO  SET NewestFile   I

User · Answer

The accepted answer gives an example of using the newest file in a command and then exiting  If you need to do this in a bat file with other complex operations you can use the following to store the file name of the newest file in a variable   FOR  F  delims      I IN   DIR        B  O D   DO SET NewestFile   I   Now you can reference  NewestFile  throughout the rest of your bat file    For example here is what we use to get the latest version of a database  bak file from a directory  copy it to a server  and then restore the db    Variables SET DatabaseBackupPath   virtualserver1 Database Backups  echo  echo Restore WebServer Database FOR  F  delims      I IN   DIR   DatabaseBackupPath  WebServer   bak   B  O D   DO SET NewestFile   I copy   DatabaseBackupPath  WebServer  NewestFile    D     sqlcmd -U  lt username gt  -P  lt password gt  -d master -Q    RESTORE DATABASE  ExampleDatabaseName    FROM  DISK   N D   NewestFile     WITH  FILE   1     MOVE N Example CS  TO N C  Program Files Microsoft SQL Server MSSQL 1 MSSQL Example mdf      MOVE N Example CS log  TO N C  Program Files Microsoft SQL Server MSSQL 1 MSSQL Example 1 LDF      NOUNLOAD   STATS   10

User · Answer

Bash    find -type f -printf   T   p  n           sort           tail -n 1           sed -r  s   S  s   s  s               xargs -iSTR cp STR newestfile   where  newestfile  will become the newestfile   alternatively  you could do newdir STR or just newdir   Breakdown     list all files in  time   file  format   sort them by time  get the last one cut off the time  and whitespace from the start end copy resulting value    Important   After running this once  the newest file will be whatever you just copied  p   assuming they re both in the same search scope that is    So you may have to adjust which filenumber you copy if you want this to work more than once

User · Answer

echo off set source  C  test case  set target  C  Users Alexander Desktop random folder   FOR  F  delims     I IN   DIR  source       A -D  O -D  B   DO COPY  source     I   target   amp  echo   I  amp  GOTO  END  END TIMEOUT 4   My attempt to copy the newest file from a folder  just set your source and target folders and it should work  This one ignores folders  concern itself only with files  Recommed that you choose filetype in the DIR path changing     to   zip for example  TIMEOUT wont work on winXP I think

User · Answer

Windows shell  one liner   FOR  F   I IN   DIR      B  O -D   DO COPY   I  lt  lt NewDir gt  gt   amp  EXIT

User · Answer

Bash    find -type f -printf   T   p  n           sort           tail -n 1           sed -r  s   S  s   s  s               xargs -iSTR cp STR newestfile   where  newestfile  will become the newestfile   alternatively  you could do newdir STR or just newdir   Breakdown     list all files in  time   file  format   sort them by time  get the last one cut off the time  and whitespace from the start end copy resulting value    Important   After running this once  the newest file will be whatever you just copied  p   assuming they re both in the same search scope that is    So you may have to adjust which filenumber you copy if you want this to work more than once

User · Answer

Bash    find -type f -printf   T   p  n           sort           tail -n 1           sed -r  s   S  s   s  s               xargs -iSTR cp STR newestfile   where  newestfile  will become the newestfile   alternatively  you could do newdir STR or just newdir   Breakdown     list all files in  time   file  format   sort them by time  get the last one cut off the time  and whitespace from the start end copy resulting value    Important   After running this once  the newest file will be whatever you just copied  p   assuming they re both in the same search scope that is    So you may have to adjust which filenumber you copy if you want this to work more than once

User · Answer

echo off set source  C  test case  set target  C  Users Alexander Desktop random folder   FOR  F  delims     I IN   DIR  source       A -D  O -D  B   DO COPY  source     I   target   amp  echo   I  amp  GOTO  END  END TIMEOUT 4   My attempt to copy the newest file from a folder  just set your source and target folders and it should work  This one ignores folders  concern itself only with files  Recommed that you choose filetype in the DIR path changing     to   zip for example  TIMEOUT wont work on winXP I think

User · Answer

I know you asked for Windows but thought I'd add this anyway,in Unix/Linux you could do:

cp `ls -t1 | head -1` /somedir/

Which will list all files in the current directory sorted by modification time and then cp the most recent to /somedir/

User · Answer

I know you asked for Windows but thought I'd add this anyway,in Unix/Linux you could do:

cp `ls -t1 | head -1` /somedir/

Which will list all files in the current directory sorted by modification time and then cp the most recent to /somedir/

User · Answer

This will open a second cmd exe window   If you want it to go away  replace the  K with  C   Obviously  replace new file loc with whatever your new file location will be    echo off for  F   i in   dir  B  O -D   txt   do       call  open    i      exit  B 0    open     start  window title   cmd  K copy   1 new file loc  exit  B 0

User · Answer

This will open a second cmd exe window   If you want it to go away  replace the  K with  C   Obviously  replace new file loc with whatever your new file location will be    echo off for  F   i in   dir  B  O -D   txt   do       call  open    i      exit  B 0    open     start  window title   cmd  K copy   1 new file loc  exit  B 0

[batch-file] How do I write a Windows batch script to copy the newest file from a directory?

Examples related to batch-file

Examples related to forfiles